


The Program – editorial

by Charles_Rockafellor



Category: Original Work
Genre: Conspiracy, Flat Earth, Role-Playing Game, Social Programming, thought crime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24384322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charles_Rockafellor/pseuds/Charles_Rockafellor
Summary: Social programming, unlike predictive programming, acts herein as blinders to prevent thought on a given topic or along certain lines.  Thought Crime isn't even possible, and when somehow encountered, this program acts to immediately shout down any such opposing view, or beat it into non-existence if submission isn't yielded.𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆, 𝑺𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒖𝒃𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒆! ❤️
Collections: Worldbuilding Meta





	The Program – editorial

Have you ever watched Joss Whedon's “ _Dollhouse_ ” – specifically watched it through the second season? If not, and you wish to avoid a complete second-season-spoiler (though it's revealed in perhaps the post-finale episode “ _Epitaph One_ ” of season one), then you might wish to skip this write-up.

** > > > S P O I L E R A L E R T > > > **

In _Dollhouse_ , we see people programmed like robots, taking on various data and personalities about as easily as changing one's shoes. This could be beneficial for speed-learning, but the show focuses on far more than that. Season two, in particular, asks one hell of a question: _What if people (the “Butchers”) were programmed to kill, but only targeting those who hadn't received this program?_

In both degree and kind, this is very different from the reaction that one might get from saying that one doesn't watch sports, or is vegetarian, or is lactose intolerant.

In writing “ _Icewall_ ,” I tried to research some of the topics that it involved. Generally this meant sci-fi and fantasy, or dice-based games, or various conspiracies. It got mixed reactions, but nothing particularly remarkable, whether good or bad – except for Flat Earth.

Even mentioning the term Flat Earth would drop the conversational temperature by 50° (and raise others' tempers by at least as much). It triggered mockery and ad hominem attacks instantly, most of the time – and that was only for asking a question about it, never identifying as being a Flat Earther (I'm not, so there was no call to do so, and to do so would have been to lie).

The point here isn't about the stories, nor the ideas for the game-world or story settings, it's not even about the bizarre aggression and hostility that F.E. raises as a topic. It's about asking, completely seriously, **_why_ **such a response comes about and so strongly – after all, are you passionate about whether I eat crackers, or wear some specific brand of foot gear?

I've asked that, too, and sometimes hear that F.E.-people hound everyone about it. Maybe, but I've never seen them do so outside of a couple of videos from one specific YouTuber – and that still wouldn't explain that reaction to my having asked about it, since the responses were almost invariably instantaneous, hence not leaving the slightest chance for me to hound anyone about it (not that I'd have hounded them had the opportunity been granted).

So here's a fledgling conspiracy conjecture: What if there's a Dollhouse-Butcher-like anti-F.E. program already installed into people's firmware?

Do I expect so? No – but I've never seen anything like the 0-60 kill-response that this topic triggers in others.

**O ~~~ O**

**Author's Note:**

> The "Icewall" .pdf mentioned above goes into a lot of different RPGs, conspiracies, sci-fi and fantasy themes, and gives a general overview of cobbling the lot together. It's just an idea that snowballed, but it's fun. It can be found at  
> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BG7P_sVezz8Dn5b8js_34yeAjSBhfN0v


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